The present disclosure relates to electrical connectors, and more particularly, to an insulation piercing connector (IPC).
IPCs are often used to make an electrical connection from one or more smaller electrical conductors (i.e., wires) to a larger electrical conductor (i.e., wire). Solar engineering procurement and construction (EPC) and developers attempt to reduce the number of components in a photovoltaic (PV) system that will reduce the overall cost of installation. In current PV systems as illustrated in FIG. 1, PV modules are connected together in series. PV wires exiting the back of the PV module connect each module together via MC4 connectors. Traditionally the PV wires from the back of the PV module are fed into a combiner box to be combined then trenched to an inverter. This use of a combiner boxes and trenching greatly increases the cost of the PV system.
Therefore, there is a need to eliminate the combiner boxes and the trenching required to install a PV system.
The present invention solves these and other problems in the prior art.